Which Who What?

Today is the NFL’s Final Four, The Super Bowl play-in day. Watching CBS (before it was blocked on the web), I noted that The Who is getting prominent billing as the final game’s halftime act. Last year, prior to Springsteen’s bow on The Super Bowl stage, I asked PM readers to weigh in with their preferences for The Boss’s playlist. With Bruce favoring his newer stuff, no one’s wishes came close to Springsteen’s reality. I wonder how we all might do this time around?

To that end, I’ve put together the poll below. If you want to offer up your opinion, you can pick up to 5 songs you’d like to hear from the list I’ve prepared. And, if you don’t see a song up there (Acid Queen? Boris the Spider?, Squeeze Box? Eminence Front?) feel free to punch in “Other” and make your selection in the Comment Box below. On game day I will review the results and compare it to the band’s actual set.

In terms of what actually will be played, I have learned from a buddy of mine, who is both a confidant of the band and has a sibling who works for the league, that the NFL put in a pretty definitive request to the band. Unlike a number of groups in the past, there has been very little resistance from the performers; The Who is pretty much down with what has been suggested by the league. So, if you look at it through the NFL’s eyes, rather than the creative’s, maybe you’ll have an inkling of what we will actually end up hearing.

Todd is a novelist, essayist, academician, songwriter, web designer, teacher, lecturer, former DJ, past basketball coach, son, brother, husband, father, and friend. Sired in Pasadena, California, with time spent in Paris, France; educated in Syracuse, New York, now educating in Sendai, Japan, Todd is a person of multiple identities: an intellectual gypsy with cross-national links and a transnational perspective. Todd holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Social Science and is currently Professor of Mediated Sociology in the Graduate School of International Cultural Studies (GSICS) at Tohoku University, in Sendai, Japan.
For analyses of Japanese popular culture by tjm Holden, see archived issues of his column, ReDotPop: Mediations of Japan; and for adventures in the journey of life, see his PopMatters' travel blog: Peripatetic Postcards.